your opinions please

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and the rest of the emperors in place...
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all i need now is another fx5. the intake of the fx5 will be on the far right and the spraybar will be behind the overlap of the right backround section and the middle backround section.
 
here's a dry run shot. it looks alot better w/ the light on top, as if the overhead lights were in place.
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i think i'll slide the stacks over towards the outside, and tilt them back some at the upper tiers.
i have screwed up the 280 mod though. i forgot about the glass top interfering. so either cut the mod off and try again or have the glass cut.
 
there is a light...i can see it!!
fillin this bad boy up tommorrow folks. would have done it tonight, but i'm pooped from building a canopy all day. plus a piece of acylic is still drying. i cut some acrylic pieces to cover up the overflow areas on top of the styro blocks. this will force the filters to pull water from the sides and bottom, and also direct water over the backround, instead of back into the overflow areas, as it comes out of the emperor HOBs'.
right side...
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left side...
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and this piece to cover the right 'side' view of the styro blocks and fx5 intake area...
img_865744_2_02188e4560bf1ec44765f60b0a391f3b.jpg

to fix the emperor 280 mod from the left side error, i finally bit the bullet and cut the backround in the tank. huge mess, but worth it. of course this means i chopped up a perfectly good emperor for nothing, but no biggie i hope as i cut the filter to the back resevoire' ramp thing, then epoxyed it in place w/ an acylic tringle brace. hopefully it works. if not, i'll just get a smaller canister or another 280.
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i'll put a few final pics up of the tank filled and the canopy on. after that i'll do a seperate thread titled 125g malawi tank, to track the tanks progress. hopefully i'll get some more feedback.
 
minor set back folks. on filling up the 125, i noticed the rock/styro stacks are still a bit bouyant. the smaller stack actually toppled, so i'll have to glue rock to the back of the stacks and another piece to the bottom of each sub stack.
get back w/ yall next week. sorry for the delay!:wallbash::wallbash:
 
i'm back in business today. an idea came to me while i was trying to get to sleep last night. "Pork", says my pee brain," take the dern sand and eggcrate out, and glue the stacks to the bottom. then glue each consecutive stack to the one under it. throw an extra thick rock on top of each stack, in case something breaks loose, and be done w/ it."
so that's how i spent my afternoon. i must say i'm getting pretty adept at removing substrate,lol. here's how things look now.
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i ran out of silicone of course, but i'll finish up tommorrow. then i'll need another week or so to let the silicone dry.
....till then
 
I sure hope you are not one who likes to redecorate a lot! This tank is going to be quite impressive, but taking it apart and reworking it will be next to impossible...
 
glad u like march!

cat...would most certainly be a project to redo this tank. i'll be happy w/ it for a few years i imagine. my other tanks or more user friendly.
 
filled her up yesterday, and that mystery fog u may have seen in the other thread ,clouded the whole tank. i let the filters work on it, but they couldn't make a ding overnight, so i drained and filled it twice today. it's much better now, but still a bit hazy. these are the best pics i can muster between the fog and the actinic lights. plus my whisper pump is tired [drank a gallon or 2 of water last year] , so the waterfall effect is not happening yet. i'll have to get a new pump tommorrow.
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again the pics blow. my camera apparently doesn't do actinic very well. i'll bust out the video camera when things clear up, and the new pump is running.
say...mystery fog...purple lights...
DEEP PURPLE!!!
smoke on the water baby!!!
 
hate to break the news folks, but i unfortunately chose the wrong type of silicone. it is disentegrating under the water. the entire backround is junk as well as the styro stacks.
i'm out several hundred dollars in supplies, as well as over 100 hours of work and gas and headache. possibly 3 ruined filters too. all because home depot was out of GEI black silicone. hopefully i can get the tank torn down w/out breaking it, and clean it up properly. going to take forever...but, better me than u!!!
i honestly feel like quiting right now, but it's not my style.lost a few quarantine fish last night to top it off. [not in this tank
the pig shall be back, bigger and better!
i will rise up my friends!!! [just not tonight...uuggghhhh]:
 
porksnorkel said:
hate to break the news folks, but i unfortunately chose the wrong type of silicone. it is disentegrating under the water. the entire backround is junk as well as the styro stacks.
i'm out several hundred dollars in supplies, as well as over 100 hours of work and gas and headache. possibly 3 ruined filters too. all because home depot was out of GEI black silicone. hopefully i can get the tank torn down w/out breaking it, and clean it up properly. going to take forever...but, better me than u!!!
i honestly feel like quiting right now, but it's not my style.lost a few quarantine fish last night to top it off. [not in this tank
the pig shall be back, bigger and better!
i will rise up my friends!!! [just not tonight...uuggghhhh]:
Click to expand...
Sounds extremely frustrating I am sorry to hear that if I was you my post would not have been so nice. Kudos to you for maintaining your patience.
 
last pic...
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tanks pretty much cleaned up. hopefully my filters will survive the ordeal. i may have burned up a shop vac though, suckin the mud out,lol.
i'm kinda contemplating sticking w/ black backround and nice stack of rocks at this point. i'ma think on it for a few days. maybe go look at some rocks tommorrow.
 
Wow...

Wow... How frustrating - I "bookmarked" your thread several days ago because I liked your idea and don't have my 100+ gallon tank yet (and may not have for a few years... who knows)... but really enjoy DIY projects and thought you did an outstanding job on this one... 100+ hours of work down the drain is unbelievable. Good luck with your new plans, I'll be interested to see what you come up with next.
 
I don't know about the black background after seeing your rock one LoL. I like the slate wall look :)
 
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